Condition Monitoring: real examples of use

Ever wondered how many machines fail around the world every second? It might be impossible to know the exact number because most of the machines are not connected to a system where they can report errors. If the machine is critical to your business or to your life, you might have a maintenance contract to prevent failures or at least have a repair as soon as possible. Companies providing maintenance contracts have tried to prevent failures in their systems by programing periodic inspections and maintenances job and to avoid common failures. Normally periodic inspections follow a protocol the check the parts of the machine and try to fix minor malfunctions to avoid a big one. Internet of Things, in some industries, has revolutionized the maintenance process by introducing Condition Monitoring Systems that can prevent malfunctions and sudden failures. Condition Monitoring, picks data that machinery is transmitting while it operates ( like temperature, vibrations,fluids, electronic data, power consumptions …), analysing them and combining with other external information ( like site conditions, for example the weather or the repair history) . Mix all the data, process it with the right tools and workflows and as result you can predict possible failures.

Verizon has a special division working in develop IoT Products in Smart Monitoring & Management ( you have the link at the end of the post) , if you see the next video you understand better what Condition Monitoring is:

The connected machinery and the Internet of Things allows to have important data to analyze and to program better maintenance jobs. This new procedure is very important for the people who work with this machinery (sometimes very dangerous) trying to prevent possible accidents and helping the Maintenance Team “predict” better inspections. In fact, Condition Monitoring has become a very important step in the Maintenance Strategy. Big companies like Caterpillar (CAT) are working with this technology in many fields and improving it every day to offer better solutions, one example you can see in the video about how Cat® MineStar™ Health works:

The benefits are huge: more secure machines, planned maintenance becomes more effective, important reductions in repair costs and an increase in the machine life expectancy. The IoT has changed the Maintenance Concept of many industries and machines and there are already many examples around us, like in the elevators of ThyssenKrupp.

Sometimes, there are machines working in hostile environments and access to them is difficult. In this case we can combine Condition Monitoring with Remote Diagnosis of the problems. Siemens has expertise in the area. They use remote monitoring and diagnosis in wind turbines deployed worldwide, normally in remote areas to collect all sort of alarms remotely but also detecting potential errors before become major failures.

Carriots Iot Platform is already used by several of our industrial customers in their Condition Monitoring strategy. Our software is a building block of the solution, easy to integrate with existing devices and IT systems used in maintenance workflows. If you are a manufacturer of machinery willing to offer new maintenance services, or a company providing maintenance services, don’t hesitate to contact us!